The Ordination of Gene Robinson

ALL SOULS PARISH
July 27, 2003

The Rev. Andrew J. Walmisley

Our Episcopal church is on the brink of yet another crisis. Again, the church is a barque on a storm-tossed sea.

Seven Primates from Africa, Asia and Australia met with over fifty conservative Episcopal bishops in Truro, Virginia, last week to convey a warning that if the Episcopal church at its convention next week votes to accept a gay bishop (Gene Robinson, recently elected Bishop of New Hampshire) or to bless same sex unions, it would "precipitate a dramatic realignment of the church." They said that the proposed actions of Convention would "shatter the church." Should both issues be affirmed at Convention, the conservatives threatened "action," but chose not to reveal what that would be, claiming an interest in trying to preserve an "element of surprise."

Rowan Williams on the same day sent a letter to all the Anglican Primates asking them to maintain mutual accountability to maintain unity. Because our tradition has no central authority, he said, "we are quite vulnerable in times of deep disagreement, and more than ever need to pay attention to one another." Within this living communion we should never seem to say to one another, "I have no need of you." (1 Cor. 12.21)

The Truro statement claims that the signers represent a majority of the world's 79 million Anglicans. In fact, the seven primates represent no more than one quarter of the world's Anglicans and the ten American bishops who signed represent less than 9% of the American church.

Recently, the Bishop of New Westminster in Canada authorized in his Diocese, liturgies for same sex unions. In early June, fourteen of the thirty-eight Primates charged that "by deliberately and intentionally abandoning the established Anglican consensus, the Bishop had placed himself and his Diocese in an automatic state of impaired communion with the majority within the Anglican communion."

Frank Griswold (Presiding Bishop) wrote to the Primates on July 27 asking for their understanding of the difference in social context between their provinces and the American church over the issue of human sexuality. "In our part of the world," he wrote, "there is an acknowledgment that some men and women find that their deepest affections are ordered to members of the same sex...Each of us has to interpret the Gospel in our own context and within the particular reality of our own Province; there is no such thing as a neutral reading of Scripture. While we all accept the authority of Scripture, we interepret various passages in different ways."

Archbishop Njongonkuchi Ndungarre of South Africa came out against the Truro statement: "I believe that it is wrong and contrary to our Anglican Tradition to presume to interfere in the affairs of another Province. Let us respect the integrity of each Province."

In the light of this current crisis, it might be helpful to say a few words about our Anglican Tradition. Who are we, really, and what makes us distinctive? First of all, I want to say, with St. Paul, that "Christ dwells in our hearts through faith, and that we are rooted and grounded in Love." As such, the classic Anglican Three Pillars of Scripture, Tradition, and Reason only have meaning in the context of our lives in Christ, "rooted and grounded in Love."

Scripture is not for us the Sacred Golden Tablets sent down from heaven, but the response of our earliest ancestors in Faith to the great works of God. They are reflections on the part of the Faith Community to their experience of being rooted and grounded in Love. Our Church has always maintained that Scripture is a product of the Community, not the other way around, and we have for 200 years applied a rigorous, scientific approach to its interpretation. Intellectual integrity and honesty have always been of the highest importance to us. Tradition isn't merely old things passed on to us from the past, but rather our ongoing reflection on the Faith experience of those who have gone before us. How have they been rooted and grounded in Love? How did they deal with the tough questions of Life? How did they triumph over adversity and renew their faith in God's eternal Love in changing times? We will see that Christians once used Scripture to justify slavery, genocide, racism and oppression of women. Those who went before us struggled with these issues in the light of God's compassionate Love and came to a new understanding of the Will of God. Through our reflection on Tradition, we can begin to see an evolution in our understanding of God as the circle of inclusive Love widens from generation to generation rather like the way in which the principles of the US Constitution have broadened to include a far wider section of humankind than the Founding Fathers ever imagined. Reason is our ongoing reflection on the work of God in Creation; our honest questioning and search for Truth as we read the great text of Creation: "the heavens are telling the glory of God." We have learned infinitely more about the world and about human nature than our forebears ever imagined and this informs our understanding of the Faith, which is ultimately (St. Paul) "beyond understanding." While it is beyond understanding, it is never beyond questioning. No assumption can be left unquestioned! We are a tradition that has valued such questioning for centuries!

Most importantly, we have always been a tradition whose very identity is to be inclusive of varying perspectives. The Church of England, from the earliest times, as the national church of a very argumentative people, learned to be exceedingly broad in its embrace of a wide variety of theologies. Hooker, at the end of the 16th century, said that "far from being a compromise to keep the peace, the Anglican Way was a comprehension for the sake of the Truth." The Truth was both Protestant and Catholic, liberal and conservative, "High and Low." We have managed to hold together in one Communion the oddest of bedfellows. It follows, then, that those who claim to represent the "One Anglican perspective" on any issue, simply miss the whole point of what this tradition is about. It isn't the Anglican Way so much as the Anglican Ways.

So, what will happen if the measures pass at Convention? There will be considerably grumbling and some may leave the Church, as they did when the 1979 Book of Common Prayer was published or when women were first ordained. But the Church survived and strengthened its Mission in the knowledge that it stood for what was right.

And what will happen if these measures fail to pass? Many of us will be disappointed, fearing that once again the Church chose compromise over Truth. Still, however, the struggle for justice will continue until, like that for the ordination of women, the time is ripe for the whole Church to embrace that justice.

Whatever happens, we must remain true to our unique understanding of the Christian faith: tolerant of differing opinions, but ever questioning accepted or received assumptions in the light of the love of Christ "that surpasses knowledge." The little barque is, indeed, tossed by the storm, but the voice of Christ speaks Peace: "It is I, do not be afraid."